Somali PM Plans to Focus on Economy to Rebuild Nation

“There’s a great deal of unemployment here, that’s why the youth are taking their luck to the high seas,” Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said. “We need a paradigm shift, a new way of thinking, and a sound, tangible plan for competing in the global market place in the near future.” Photographer: Mustafa Abdi/AFP/Getty Images

(Corrects company name in fifth paragraph of story
published on Aug. 20.)

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Somalia’s new government will focus
on the economy as it seeks to rebuild a nation shattered by two
decades of war, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said.

The country is in the final stages of selecting a two-tier
parliament, Ali, who is a candidate to become president, said in
an interview in Mogadishu, the capital, on Aug. 16. Lawmakers
are scheduled to vote in a new president today, though the
process may be delayed because the vetting of parliamentarians
has taken longer than expected, he said.

The elections are Somalia’s latest attempt to establish a
functional central administration that collapsed when the former
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. The country has
been mired in clan-based conflict and an insurgency led by al-Qaeda-linked militants ever since. The lack of security has
allowed piracy and hostage-taking to flourish, fueled by
criminals seeking ransoms. Attacks by pirates in 2011 cost the
shipping industry and governments $6.9 billion, according to the
Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation.

“There’s a great deal of unemployment here, that’s why the
youth are taking their luck to the high seas,” Ali said. “We
need a paradigm shift, a new way of thinking, and a sound,
tangible plan for competing in the global market place in the
near future.”

Foreign Investors

Somalia has a $5.9 billion economy, according to the U.S.
State Department. That compares with neighboring Kenya’s $32
billion economy, the region’s largest. Investors in Somalia
include Africa Oil Corp., based in Vancouver, and partners Red
Emperor Resources NL and Range Resources Ltd. of Australia,
which said in March they will invest $50 million drilling two
wells in Puntland, a semi-autonomous northern region of the
country.

A United Nations report published in July says graft,
fraud, and theft of public resources have “become a system of
governance” in Somalia and that revenue intended for
development has gone missing, including $131 million in 2009-10.
Remittances from overseas workers of about $1 billion a year are
its main source of revenue, according to the World Bank.

Regional Pressure

Under a so-called road map agreed upon by Somali leaders
last year, the transitional federal government’s mandate from
the UN was extended for 12 months to today to prepare for a new
administration.

Sheikh Sharif’s government, the 15th attempt to stabilize
the country, has failed to end conflict, though security has
improved as African Union and government soldiers weakened the
al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab militia through counter-insurgency operations.

Al-Shabaab, which has waged a five-year rebellion to
overthrow the government, withdrew from Mogadishu last August
and a series of other towns and cities since then. The group
still controls swathes of southern and central Somalia and
international observers including the UN have warned that
warlords may exploit a power vacuum in newly captured areas.

“The transitional government has been propped up by
finances from donors abroad, and now is the chance to see if it
can stand on its own feet, provide services to the rest of the
country, and fill the vacuum from the movement of al-Shaabab
from the rest of the country,” Ahmed Soliman, a Horn of Africa
researcher with Chatham House, said in a phone interview from
London on Aug. 15. “That is the real challenge, and that starts
with the next president and parliament.”

‘Careful Planning’

Ali, a Somali-American economist with a master’s degree in
public administration from Harvard University and a PhD in
economics from George Mason University, said those challenges
would be met by “careful planning, adherence to good governance
procedures along with support from our international partners.”

“The new federal government will claim its rightful place
amongst the nations of the world, make bilateral agreements and
have access to the international markets,” Ali said.

The U.S., African Union and UN this month voiced concern
over reports of intimidation and corruption in the process of
Somalia leaders selecting a 275-member parliament and 54
senators. Somalia’s neighbors, concerned that the continuing
conflict poses a threat to regional stability, are also keeping
up pressure on its leaders to end the transition and warned that
attempts to disrupt the process will result in sanctions on
individuals.

‘Clear Message’

“We wish to send a clear message to all those intent on
derailing, undermining or manipulating the road map towards a
permanent political settlement after August 2012 that Kenya will
not tolerate such actions,” Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said
in an e-mailed statement on Aug. 17.

A committee overseeing the selection of Somalia’s new
parliament has vetted the the “vast majority of the lawmakers,
and they could being working as early as today, the United
Nations Political Office for Somalia said in an e-mailed
statement yesterday. The statement was endorsed by foreign
observers including the African Union, European Union, the U.K.
and the U.S.